JRFU From 20 to 22 February, the “JENESYS Japan-ASEAN Sports (Rugby) x SDGs Exchange“, an exchange program by the Japanese government to promote understanding between Japan and ASEAN took place.
Japan Rugby Football Union (Chairman: Masato Tsuchida, Minato-ku, Tokyo) (JRFU) support the programme as a part of the “Asian Scrum Project”, an international exchange program through rugby.
This project is a part of the 50th anniversary of the Japan-ASEAN Friendship Cooperation programs. Participants were 80 university students who are interested in Rugby and one person from the national rugby union from 12 countries (ASEAN member countries, Timor-Leste, Japan). They visit Tokyo, Fukuoka, and Saitama to participate in various exchange activities to learn and experience Rugby and Japanese culture.
About this project
The opening ceremony was held on the first day of the tag rugby program at JAPAN BASE in Fukuoka.
All participants from ASEAN and Timor-Leste, along with participants from the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University Rugby Club and Kyushu Sangyo University Women’s Rugby Club gathered to kick off the event.
Hideo Takamizu from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke about the purpose of this project. Takayuki Kukimoto, chairman of the Kyushu Rugby Association, said, “We are happy to host this event here in Fukuoka for the first time after the Covid. I hope this event will be an opportunity to exchange and learn about each other’s culture and build friendships with your peers from Asia and ASEAN through tag rugby. And I also hope you will bring back what you learn here to your country”.
“First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for this opportunity. I am looking forward to learning, enjoying and building the friendship through rugby together”. Representative of the participants, Adeen Erfan Bin Md Baharudin (Malaysia) said.
The program started with ice break games and played tag rugby.
The master coach Watanabe advised, “Language would be a challenge during this program. But please accept differences, listen and find a way to understand each other”.
Participants learned games of tag rugby and enjoyed playing tag rugby together.
Later in the evening, we held the coaching session, in which participants learned the rules of tag rugby, and how tag rugby can be used as a physical education and community sport.
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Japan Rugby Football Union aims to achieve one of our goals ” Contribute to society through rugby’s unique values”.
Through this project, we aim to encourage youth in ASEAN and Asia to understand each other’s country and culture, to have interests in the SDGs and social issues, and to take action that they can do through Rugby.
Click here for more information about JRFU’s international cooperation
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